The latest: Ghibli Fest 2025 movies and dates announced, celebrating 40 years of the studio! Here we go: Kiki’s Delivery Service (May 17-21), The Secret World of Arrietty (June 22-24), My Neighbor Totoro (July 19-23), Grave of the Fireflies (August 10-12), Ponyo (August 23-27), Howl’s Moving Castle (September 20-24), Spirited Away (October 18-22), and The Boy and the Heron (November 15-19).
Studio Ghibli has been gently revolutionizing the animation world since 1986, combining an endearing and empathetic worldview with rousing adventure. That was the year of their debut feature, Castle in the Sky, which heralded the superstar team of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. (Nausicaa, which we’re including on this list, was made before Ghibli’s founding but has been culturally adopted as part of of filmography.) Miyazaki has been Studio Ghibli’s global champion, and rounded out the rest of the ’80s with My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service. And it wasn’t long before producer Takahata wore the director’s hat, crafting the somber Grave of the Fireflies, which played as a double feature with Totoro in Japan.
Entering the ’90s, the two Ghibli founders went toe-to-toe with Porco Rosso and Only Yesterday. The latter was by Takahata, establishing him as a more dramatically grounded artist as compared to Miyazaki’s literal flights of fancy. But it is Miyazaki’s fantastical stories that have proven popular internationally, from the ecological war epic Princess Mononoke to the witchcraft and wizardry of Howl’s Moving Castle to the Oscar-winning masterpiece Spirited Away. The Tale of Princess Kaguya was Takahata’s final film before his death in 2018.
Other directors at Studio Ghibli include Miyazaki’s son Goro (Tales from Earthsea, From Up on Poppy Hill) and Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Arrietty, When Marnie Was There), who subsequently left to found Studio Ponoc after Ghibli went into hiatus in 2014 following Miyazaki’s retirement. This isn’t the first time he’s announced retirement (he did so after Ponyo, and after The Wind Rises), and he’s back at it again with The Boy and the Heron, an adaptation of the young-adult novel How Do You Live?. Now we rank all of Studio Ghibli’s movies by Tomatometer, Certified Fresh films first! —Alex Vo
Critics Consensus: Boasting narrative depth, frank honesty, and exquisite visual beauty, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is a modern animated treasure with timeless appeal.
Synopsis: A tiny nymph found inside a bamboo stalk grows into a beautiful and desirable young woman, who orders her suitors [More]
Critics Consensus:Only Yesterday's long-delayed U.S. debut fills a frustrating gap for American Ghibli fans while offering further proof of the studio's incredibly consistent commitment to quality.
Synopsis: A put-upon 27-year-old Japanese office worker travels to the countryside and reminisces about her childhood in Tokyo and what life [More]
Critics Consensus:Spirited Away is a dazzling, enchanting, and gorgeously drawn fairy tale that will leave viewers a little more curious and fascinated by the world around them.
Synopsis: 10-year-old Chihiro (Daveigh Chase) moves with her parents to a new home in the Japanese countryside. After taking a wrong [More]
Critics Consensus: Soulfully exploring thought-provoking themes through a beautifully animated lens, The Boy and the Heron is another Miyazaki masterpiece.
Synopsis: From the legendary Studio Ghibli and Academy Award®-winning director Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) comes a new critically-acclaimed fantasy adventure. After [More]
Critics Consensus: Visually lush, refreshingly free of family-friendly clatter, and anchored with soulful depth, The Secret World of Arrietty lives up to Studio Ghibli's reputation.
Synopsis: Arrietty, a tiny teenager, lives with her parents in the recesses of a suburban home, unbeknown to the homeowner and [More]
Critics Consensus:When Marnie Was There is still blessed with enough visual and narrative beauty to recommend, even if it isn't quite as magical as Studio Ghibli's greatest works.
Synopsis: A tomboy (Hailee Steinfeld) explores a long-abandoned villa and meets a mysterious blonde girl only she can see. [More]
Critics Consensus: Exquisitely illustrated by master animator Miyazaki, Howl's Moving Castle will delight children with its fantastical story and touch the hearts and minds of older viewers as well.
Synopsis: Sophie (Emily Mortimer) has an uneventful life at her late father's hat shop, but all that changes when she befriends [More]
Critics Consensus: Gentle and nostalgic, From Up on Poppy Hill is one of Studio Ghibli's sweeter efforts -- and if it doesn't push the boundaries of the genre, it remains as engagingly lovely as Ghibli fans have come to expect.
Synopsis: Yokohama teens try to save their school's clubhouse from being demolished. [More]
Critics Consensus: With a storytelling palette as rich and brilliant as its animation, Castle in the Sky thrillingly encapsulates Studio Ghibli's unique strengths.
Synopsis: Young orphan Sheeta and her kidnapper, Col. Muska, are flying to a military prison when their plane is attacked by [More]
100%
90%
96%
37%
46%
